Adrian won a Diamondback rod, a fleece, £250

Here, over two days, a range of anglers with varying experience competed against each other in order to win a place in the final in September – to be held on the very same water!On Friday those anglers fishing had the better of the two days weather-wise, for although it was blustery, it was not too cold and the sun made an occasional appearance. Sixty-eight anglers competed for six places and there were six limit bags of ten fish caught.In first place on the day was local expert Adrian Necci, whose ten trout with “time bonus” – that is a weight of two pounds added for each hour of the competition remaining after he has caught his limit – weighed in at 26lbs 6oz. Adrian won a Diamondback rod, a fleece, £250.00, a Worldwide Fishing Safari cap and of course that place in the final.In second place was Simon Newman, who apart from being a dedicated competition angler, works for one of the sponsors of the competition: Worldwide Fishing Safaris. Simon fished just past Dunsters and caught his limit of ten faster than anybody else, though his were smaller fish than Adrian had in his bag. Simon took away a reel made by Youngs and a Cortland/Masterline fishing shirt. Simon’s weight was 24lbs 10oz.Keith Nicholson filled third place, just five ounces adrift. He was rewarded with a Cortland Lazer fly line and a shirt. With 22lbs 9oz Pete Johnson was fourth and therefore goes into the final. However fifth angler John Hardy, having already qualified at Hanningfield, left a place open to the fortunate angler coming sixth! On this particular day that angler was Sid Gardiner, who only caught seven trout, but he somehow managed to pick out the better quality fish as he weighed in with 17lbs 3oz. This weight was well clear of seventh place (Jim Douglas 9 trout for 15-15). Amazingly in eighth spot was one of the fellows with a limit bag – David Franklin.Tony Fox caught the top fish and it was a superb 5lb 14oz rainbow – fin perfect and like a bar of silver. It was great to see a couple of father/son pairings in the competition; surely this is something that must be encouraged more in the future.Day two was a poor day for fishing as the wind was strong and gusting. The temperature didn’t get above 8 or 9 degrees all day, even when the sun made an appearance. I went out to fish for an hour or so, but didn’t do so with any enthusiasm at all. Not one limit bag was recorded, although the top two anglers did manage to catch nine trout each. The average size of the trout landed on Saturday was also noticeably lower, with a best fish of only 2lbs 13oz. Again Tony Fox caught this! I chatted to Tony afterwards and I was amazed to hear that he had made a conscious effort to target the big fish; he had decided that that was his best option of a route through to the final. He fished both days around “Seven Pound Creek” and used a floating line and buzzers. As Tony had already qualified, his day two “best fish” award passed down to second best fish and two fish weighing 2lbs 11oz jointly won this. Bob Hussey was the angler that took the qualifying spot by virtue of the fact that Vince Brooks, the captor of the other trout at the same weight, came fourth in the match and therefore qualified via that route!Saturday’s winner was Mark Rooney whose total weight was 14lbs 15oz, so he claimed the same array of prizes that Adrian Necci had won. Phil Thompson came second and was just four ounces behind. David Flemming’s eight trout were 12lbs 15oz, whilst Vince Brook’s weighed 12lbs 11oz.The final qualifying place went to Michael Heritage who caught seven trout weighing 12lbs 6oz – as you can see, extremely close results. Unlucky angler on the Saturday must be England man Ian Foreman who partnered Phil Thompson and caught eight trout, but they weighed in at 12lbs 2oz.Bewl Water produced by far the best competition to date as the anglers that worked things out were the ones to qualify. There was none of the dreaded scrambling to get limit bags inside two hours. The fact that no limit bag was caught on Saturday did not detract ONE JOT from the match being really good. Many of the anglers expressed their thanks for a good day’s competition fishing, and several of the non-qualifiers asked about fishing further heats. This is one competition where entering as often as you like is allowed and that in itself causes some anglers problems. What do you think of this idea? Is it good, or is it detrimental to our fishing? I have even met anglers who refuse to enter the competition because of this rule! Whatever your opinion, anglers are voting positively and there are now just a few places left in the heats coming up in the future. If you are still interested in entering then give John Horsey a call on 01761-490367 – but do so soon or you may be too late!I am fishing the House of Hardy competition next week, and the European Open moves to South Wales’ Llandegfedd reservoir.Tight lines,

Martin Cottis